Citizens/consumers require a multitude of cards to perform their transactions and services in the economy. For example, a typical adult citizen will have a social security card, a driver's license, an automobile insurance card, a health insurance card, one or more recognized credit cards that can be used at a variety of establishments (e.g., Visa®, MasterCard®, American Express®), credit cards that can be used at a particular establishment (e.g., department store credit cards and gas station credit cards), one or more bank cards (which may be credit, debit, ATM or some combination thereof). Most consumers will have other cards as well, for example, library cards, automobile club cards, video store cards, member organization cards (e.g., bar association card). Carrying and keeping track of such a plethora of cards is inconvenient. Carrying all of these cards takes up a lot of room in the consumer's wallet. As an alternative, a consumer may only carry some of the cards at any given time. However, the consumer may discover that he/she is not carrying a particular card when it is needed or desired. Furthermore, if the item (e.g., wallet or purse) holding the consumer's cards is lost or stolen, it is very burdensome for the consumer to contact all the required organizations in order to cancel existing credit cards and obtain replacements for the lost or stolen cards.
Therefore, a need exists for a system or method to consolidate cards typically used by a consumer.
Furthermore, use of the plethora of cards results in a plethora of bills. This means more inconvenience and time required by the consumer to pay all of the various bills each month. In addition to the valuable time used by a consumer each month to pay all of these bills, the consumer must spend money to pay for the postage and banking fees for paying all of the monthly bills. Thus, there is also a need for consolidating payments resulting both from the use of the many cards (e.g., credit cards, healthcare, insurance, etc.) typically used by a consumer and by the consumer's monthly payments, such as rent or mortgage, electricity, gas, water, etc.